A toner cartridge has toner enclosed therein and is shipped from a factory. The toner cartridge is transported, stored, and finally loaded in an image forming apparatus.
The toner cartridge may be exposed to high temperatures during transportation and storage. As the toner cartridge is placed in a high-temperature environment for a long period of time, the toner hardens. The image forming apparatus cannot form a high-quality image.
In a related art, a toner cartridge having a recording medium such as a RFID (radio frequency identification) or an IC (integrated circuit) tag is known.
In the related art, a method is known in which at a warehouse where the cartridge is stored or at a base in the course of transportation, a writing device writes ambient temperatures in the warehouse or vehicle into the recording medium. A method is known in which a temperature detecting sticker is attached to the toner cartridge to learn that the toner cartridge is exposed to an environment in high temperatures at least once.
However, there is no method for detecting what condition the toner is preserved in. For example, the degree of temperature when the toner cartridge is stored cannot be grasped.